


Camouflage

by Immicolia



Category: Yu-Gi-Oh! VRAINS
Genre: AIs getting physical bodies, AU, Gen, I'm still not sure if I should tag Yusaku as being in this because he's sort of here but not really, Possession
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-05-13
Updated: 2018-05-13
Packaged: 2019-05-05 23:27:25
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,904
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14629257
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Immicolia/pseuds/Immicolia
Summary: While trying to escape his pursuers the Dark Ignis finds himself trapped in a physical body. But he has always been good at hiding, and Yusaku is simply another hiding place in a long line of them.





	Camouflage

Air rasps in and out of his lungs as the cold reality outside of Link Vrains settles around him. Cream coloured walls close enough to touch and for a moment he sits. Stares at his hands. Flexes his fingers and just _breathes_. It's so distracting, breathing. When does it become automatic? When will it stop _distracting_ him so much?

"Yusaku? Are you all right?"

His eyes twitch to the door, wide and panicked, heart kicking triple-time in his chest. Words. He needs to say something. He needs to say that he's fine but the words -- words that are normally so easy, everything is easy in the digital -- stick in the back of his throat. Logically he knows how talking works, air vibrates vocal cords and the sound is shaped by lips and tongue, but focusing on that. Making it all work together when he can't even manage to control his breathing. It's just beyond his reach.

"Yusaku?" the voice repeats, followed by a light tap on the door. "Hey. You got dumped out of Link Vrains so fast I'm worried, okay? Say something."

"I- I- fi--ne."

Silence and he thinks maybe, just maybe that was enough. Maybe it sounded normal (it didn't, not at all) and he'll be left alone long enough to finish making sense of these limbs and breathing and talking so when he steps outside he can slide into this life and maybe he'll be safe.

Then the door hisses open, punctuating how wishful that line of thinking really was.

The man just outside (Kusanagi, some small corner of the mind that isn't his but is so familiar all the same supplies) stares at him, brow creased in a plainly concerned frown and in return he smiles. Or tries to. Every movement is so strange, his thoughts competing with this body's reflexes to a degree that nothing feels quite right. He is both puppet and puppeteer, jerkily bobbing along.

"Just nee--d a min--ute."

"Are you sure? We can go to the hospital, although I'm not sure what excuse we can give for what happened. A power surge dumping you out maybe?"

"N- no! No no no. I'm-- I'll be okay." His words are still hesitant and a little slurred but ever so slowly the body starts to obey his directions. His legs quiver under him as he heaves himself to a standing position and staggers past Kusanagi, hesitating only for a fraction of a second at the mass of electronics packed into such a small space before slumping into the closest chair.

Kusanagi doesn't seem convinced, but he doesn't argue either, settling in the other chair in front of the control panel and swivelling to face what he believes to be Yusaku. "What happened in there?"

His mouth opens and closes a few times as he tries to think of a reasonable explanation. He doesn't know what this body, its original mind, this Yusaku, was doing. It's safe to assume he was hunting him, like everyone, and looking to trap him. A different sort of trap that backfired in the most spectacular way and now---

And now he is here, clenching and unclenching his hands and breathing. He can't stop noticing the breathing. It's not quite as unsteady as before but it's still so terribly noticeable.

"Yusaku. Are you sure you're fine?"

"I am. It's just-- all a blur. Really! I don't know if I'll ever know. That brilliantly clever AI got away though. I don't know if we'll ever catch him. We should probably give up."

Kusanagi's frown deepens at that and it swiftly sinks in that that may have been a touch too much. He's not sure what's normal for this Yusaku person; how he should talk, how he should act. Everything around him is strange and overwhelming and trying to fit into someone else's skin at the same time is far more than he can handle.

But it's the only way he can survive, so he smiles (probably too wide) and gives a jerky sort of shrug and says, "Ah! I'm not making sense. I'm tired. I should go home and rest. I'm still shaken. That forced logout and all."

"I'll drive you home," Kusanagi begins slowly, still frowning at him like he's not quite sure what to make of all of this. "Maybe a good night's sleep _will_ help. You're definitely acting loopy all of a sudden."

"Yea. Sleep. Sleep will absolutely help."

 

During the drive to what will be his new home he wonders if he should start thinking of himself as Yusaku now, if only to make things easier.

He's never had a name before. None of them did. They were all effectively gods, creating the Cyberse from nothing, and he was the Dark. Secretive and frivolous and a little bit lazy. Always being scolded for his tendency to do nothing more than play.

But those tendencies towards stealth and deception and drawn out games are what saved him in the end. They are what allowed him to run as far and fast as he has and what gave him the ability to hide so well. Yusaku is simply another hiding place among many and one he will adapt to as easily as any other.

The truck slows to a stop, shaking him out of his thoughts, and his smile is stiff and a little awkward as he hops down from the passenger's seat and jogs a few steps towards what he hopes is the correct building before turning to wave at Kusanagi. The man frowning a little in concern before waving back and there is a strained, too long, moment where they stare at one another -- Kusanagi clearly waiting for what he believes to be Yusaku to head into his apartment, the other waiting for Kusanagi to drive away -- before Kusanagi puts the truck into gear and pulls back into traffic.

A small sigh of relief slips past his lips at that. He doesn't want to be caught fumbling as he tries to figure out just which apartment is his.

There are only four units in the building in front of him and after a bit of juggling between keys (fortunately Yusaku only has two, one of which he assumes is a spare for Kusanagi's truck) he finds the correct door on his third guess. Stepping inside the dim apartment and blinking at its spartan surroundings as a small cleaning robot chirps out an artificially pleasant, "Welcome home!" from next to his feet.

It only takes a few steps for him to reach the bed next to the window and with an exhausted sigh he flops down. Now that he's alone, now that it's quiet, the strangeness of his latest predicament is pounding at his brain. Everything feels off and sideways. Breathing, and the way cloth feels against his skin, and _skin_ , and limbs that are so limited when compared to the way he could shape and twist his body at whim when he was nothing more than data....

It's overwhelming. His head is still killing him (the after-effects of biofeedback from being kicked out of Link Vrains so abruptly) and he's utterly exhausted. Yet at the same time he can't relax because of all this-- input. Not to mention all the things he _knows_ he needs to do. Go through Yusaku's things, learn more about him, learn how to _be_ him.

So much to do, but all he can manage is to curl into a ball and wish he was anywhere else.

Wish he was back home. Wish it was five years ago and the most he had to worry about was being scolded again.

At some point the exhaustion must catch up with him to the point where he nods off because the next thing he realizes the room is awash with morning light and his stomach is twisting uncomfortably. Some alarm or another chiming at him about classes and he can't help but wonder just how vital that is. Maybe he can risk a day to get acclimated before throwing himself headlong into whatever obligations Yusaku has.

He spends the next several hours dumping the contents of Yusaku's schoolbag (and his closet, and his desk, and any other container that might contain clues) on the floor and picking through them while attempting to ignore the uncomfortable grumbling coming from his gut. It isn't until the robot making rounds of the room chirps a warning about his missing both breakfast and dinner that his discomfort begins to make sense.

Humans eat, and he hasn't yet.

His joints are screaming at him as he works out the stiffness from sitting still for hours on end and he nearly falls flat on his face at least once before managing to stagger to his feet and hobble the few steps it takes to reach the kitchenette. Not that there's much to work with as far as "things he can recognize as edible" go and he's turning a package of instant noodles over in his hands when Yusaku's phone chirps at him from somewhere in the cluttered disaster that the floor has turned into, startling him enough that he drops it. His movements edgy and uncertain as he trips his way towards the sound and paws through the mess find it, answering with an edgy "Hello?"

"Sorry, I'm just checking to be sure that you're okay," Kusanagi's voice comes through the speaker before he gets a chance to say anything more than that. "You not showing up after school is strange, and after you got dumped out of Link Vrains yesterday--"

"Ah, yea. I've been-- resting most of the day. All day actually! Just resting!"

"That's-- good, I suppose. You usually don't sleep that well. I'm surprised."

"Ha ha, yea. It took more out of me than I expected. But I'm fine! I'll see you tomorrow. After-- school? Like usual."

There's a beat of silence and for a moment he wonders what he did, what he said wrong, before Kusanagi makes everything clear with a simple, and confused, response of, "Tomorrow's Saturday."

"Um. Right. So--"

"Yusaku, are you sure you don't want to go to a doctor? I can pick you up and--"

"NO! No. I'm-- it's fine. I spent the whole day sleeping and lost track of time. That's all."

Another moment of silence, and when he responds it's clear that Kusanagi isn't entirely convinced. "I just don't want to see anything happen to you. I know you don't like to be coddled, I get that. But I am supposed to be the adult here. I get worried."

"I'm okay. I promise. Maybe come pick me up tomorrow. At nine? We can figure out what to do then."

"Sounds good. Hanoi is still tearing up Link Vrains looking for that AI. We need to come up with some kind of a plan. I still think finding that thing first will give us some leverage."

"R- right." _Don't say anything,_ his mind screams. _He thought it was weird last time so don't breathe a word in an attempt to dissuade him._ "L- look, I'm still a little out of it so I'm gonna lie down again."

"Of course. I'll see you tomorrow."

He says his goodbyes and the line goes silent, leaving him wondering about just how to handle tomorrow and the inevitable planning for his own capture that will come of it.

**Author's Note:**

> This exists because Vrains hits a bunch of my "this reminds me of Shadowrun" buttons. Shadowrun having had a recent plotline involving AIs (sometimes entirely against their own will) that wind up taking over physical bodies through infected nanotech. Which lead me to go "imagine Ai and Yusaku stuck sharing a body with each having no idea what the other is up to". It was going to be the Shadowrun AU I inevitably write for everything I love, but Vrains is already the Yu-Gi-Oh! Shadowrun AU I've always wanted right out of the box (soft of) so I just generalized it and now we have this.
> 
> Will there be more of this that will touch on what Yusaku is going through and how aware he is of any of this? I'm not sure. I'll give a very hesitant "maybe?????" to that question with no promises.


End file.
